Candlelight ConcertsDecember 4, 2009 · 8 pmDecember 5, 2009 · 3 pmThe five most advanced groups present holiday favorites, new gems and as always, high caliber singing.

A Hard NutDecember 11-20, 2009Ensemble joins the Mark Morris Dance Troupe and the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra in nine performances of this brilliant take on Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker.

Training Department RecitalsDecember 15 & 16, 20097:30 pmOur youngest singers present the fruits of their labor - charming, inspiring, and fun for the whole family!

Truth, Justice, & PeaceWinter ConcertsJanuary 23, 20102 pm & 7 pmAll thirteen choirs will usher in the new year with performance in 2 different concerts. Hear the full range of PEBCC!

Looking Ahead…3629 Grand AvenueOakland, CA 94610

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Girls Beginning sings their heart out!

photos: Don Fogg, Vincent Massullo, Marisa Rahl, Greg Thomas

3629 Grand Avenue, Oakland, CA 94610 • (510) 547-4441 • www.piedmontchoirs.org

In June 2009, Concert Choir • sang with WomenSing in their commission of River of Words children’s poetry set to music by composer Libby Larsen.

In July 2009, PEBCC hosted its • eighth Golden Gate Festival, presenting eight concerts and four competitions in five days. Nine visiting choirs joined PEBCC singers to form a massed choir of 400 voices.

Members of PEBCC marched • in the City of Piedmont Fourth of July Parade. Board members Ray Perman and Dave Del Simone led the charge decorating a float, and the choir kicked off the concert in the park with the National Anthem, conducted by PEBCC faculty member Lynn Tousey.

PEBCC is pleased to welcome • new conductors Andrew Brown (Concert Choir) and Erica Maier D’Ambrosio (Girls Advanced) to the faculty this Fall.

Ensemble performed to happy • East Bay crowds at the annual Rockridge Out & About street festival in September 2009.

In October 2009, Ensemble • joined children’s choirs from all over the Bay Area at Grace Cathedral’s annual Voices of America’s Future. Bob Geary and Sue Bohlin led the massed choirs in Kirke Mechem’s Sing All Ye Joyful.

Also in October, clinician • Ken Abrams led an engaging workshop for our eight Training Department groups. Singers and their families enjoyed an ice cream social afterwards.

Sound Bites

Touring and the Laulupidu Festival

Newsletter of the Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir Fall 2009

by Robert Geary, Artistic Director

3629 Grand Avenue, Oakland, CA 94610 • (510) 547-4441 • www.piedmontchoirs.org

Newsletter of the Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir Fall 2009

25,000 singers rehearse in the Laulupidu choir

Annual touring has been a hallmark of the Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir since 1983. Not only do our tours enhance the Choir experience for our own choristers, but they also allow us to express American goodwill in the world.

Over the years, the Choir has toured to 24 different countries, making for an array of truly extraordinary experiences. Imagine a fourteen year old student having dinner with Fidel Castro, or being in the first American choir to sing in the major concert halls of Siberia, or being a member of the only American children’s choir to win a first prize in the Choral Olympics!

The most recent Ensemble tour to Finland and Estonia in July 2009 was anchored by the group’s participation in the Laulupidu festival in Tallin, Estonia. This was one of the great tours of our history. We attended the Laulupidu five years ago and it was extraordinary then, but a combination of historical education, great weather, and an even bigger choir of nearly 25,000, made for an experience that none of us will ever forget!

The high point of the whole trip came after the final rehearsal with the massed choir. We met at our special spot in a

grove of trees, and one by one the kids described what had just happened. They were deeply touched by being part of such a rich human experience. They tried to put words to the experience, speaking of patriotism, of feeling they were part of something much larger than themselves, of the thrill of hearing so many people singing and the remarkable opportunity it was to be a part of it. Normally quiet and somewhat puzzled boys were bubbling with observations and excitement. As a teacher and leader, I felt like I had helped the singers have a remarkable and life-changing experience.

While this particular tour may have reached a peak of human experience, the fact is that every tour offers us opportunities to connect with people in substantively musical and social ways. The connections formed through tour experiences stay with our choristers for a lifetime. Some of our singers still correspond with members of choirs they visited 25 years ago!

It is truly a joy to bear witness to such profound life experiences and growth. These children are enriching the world with their spirit and song. I am grateful to this Choir community for making it all possible.

The ChoirWire

Andrea and Paul Swenson were presented with the Choir’s 2009 Susan Emmett Rahl Founders Award at a reception on Sunday evening, October 25, 2009. The award is given to honor extraordinary service and commitment to the Choir.

The Swensons’ participation in the Choir began in 1998 when daughter Lucy joined. Their son Sam followed a few years later. For over a decade, the Swensons devoted countless hours of volunteer service, opened their home for numerous events, and demonstrated outstanding leadership in financial contributions. Above all, their boundless faith and their spirit of goodwill, have consistently painted a vision of this Choir community at its best, inspiring others to rise to their standard and become that community.

“

Newsletter of the Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir Fall 2009 Newsletter of the Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir Fall 2009

2009 Founders Award presented to Andrea & Paul Swenson

It was a spring afternoon 10 years ago, that I was sitting where you areA little girl, a first Spring Sing, maestro Geary as concert czar

I remember my first massed choir piece, vibrant colors, a wall of song

Had no clue, that fine June day, we’d be with the Choir so long

Initially the songs are simple, togetherness being the goal

Then a second part, some harmony, a change that somewhere touches your soul

The years progressed and then came camp, she left home in a fountain of tears

A brief phase I thought, most hopefully, alas those tears remained for years

Then one day she’s singing Russian, the next in French, CroatianOr Hebrew, Italian, Estonian,

now sings the tongue of many a nation

There were songs of trains and salsa, some melodious, others not so clear

But the music of so many tones, I learned to appreciate without fear

Innumerable scenes as the years rolled on, when tours take center stage

Farewell nerves at SFO, tracking progress through the daily blog page

But returns are the best from far-off lands, you can see their minds growing free

They’re tired and sticky and glad to be home, as they reprise “O say can you see”

A shhhh, a clap, a howl or a hoot, the stretching of a musical beat

As the years fly by, your taste expands, new arrangements, a musical treat

Think home stays, and solos, and bold choreography, and music you’d never download

A Golden Gate Festival that’s cultural magic, hey it’s good to have taken this road

The journey is filled with familiar faces, your choir family grows on the way

There’s Bob, Suzie, Gemma, Nancy, Miss T, Martin,and Naomi, Marion, Clifton, Judi, Sue and TJ

Now it’s been 11 years of car pools, so many rehearsals late at nightAnd call times, all seemed early, and a web site, not always right

But the experiences are rich and deep, and the growth just can’t be measured,

Nor the friendships of a lifetime, endless memories to be treasured

And now there’s one last concert, we’ve been dreading it for years

The end of a most incredible time, our smiles are tinged with tears

A final thought as the curtain falls, looking back o’er the seasons we’ve treadHaving been there, sitting where you are,

I envy your years ahead

Sitting Where You Areby Paul Swenson

reflections on Lucy’s graduation, Spring Sing 2009

One day after rehearsal, a few of my fellow choirmates and I were waiting to be loaded onto a bus. We were going to Jack London Square for a ferry ride with all of the visiting choirs, and everyone was really excited. But, after the first bus left, and then the second bus left, and then the last bus left, my friends and I thought that we had been forgotten! It turned out we were being driven to Jack London by our own personal choir-parent escorts, and we got there in plenty of time. Phew!

After seeing all seven Finnish-language Harry Potter books lined up in my home-stay’s room back in Jyväskyla, Finland, I was hardly surprised when my Finnish guests from the Vox Aurea choir asked if we could go see the new Harry Potter movie. The sixth Harry Potter movie was released during the week of the GGF, so we organized a trip. We filled the main theatre at the Grand Lake with well over thirty singers, from the USA, Finland, and Taiwan. With a multilingual din in the theatre, we shared a truly unique Harry Potter experience.

Perspectives from the Golden Gate FestivalThe 2009 Golden Gate

Festival was a fantastic success, with young singers coming together from all over the world for five days of music and fellowship. We caught up with PEBCC Ensemble co-presidents Lauren Boranian and Tlalli Aztlan Moya-Smith for perspectives from the singer side. Photography by Ensemble parent Don Fogg.

Many thanks to Bell Investment Advisors, Inc.

for their sponsorship of the 2009 Golden Gate Festival,

and their continuing support of the Piedmont East Bay

Children’s Choir.

“

”

- Tlalli Aztlan Moya-Smith

Vox Aurea with Pekka Kostiainen

Hangzhou Aiyue Tianshi Choir with Zhou Weiping

Kimi Guillermo (Ensemble) with Finnish friends

Darren Fletcher (Ecco) with Danish friends

- Lauren Boranian

”Paul & Andrea Swenson

Lucy & Sam, 2003

Sam & Lucy, 2009